The Cuckoo
by Invader-Hime
Summary: One Shot Max Tennyson's wife has left him to reconnect with her alien heritage. He attends a Plumber black tie affair to get the incident out of his mind...and encounters a being he never anticipated.


The Cuckoo

By Chibi Hime

Author's Note: This is a possible Morningstar "origin" story of sorts I had lying around in my brain for awhile and decided to write it. Ben 10 belongs to Cartoon Network and Man of Action

Alessa Elizabeth Morningstar was hunting.

Not for the usual prey.

No.

This time....this time she was being much more careful. She had to be. This prey couldn't afford to be anything but the best. She needed it to be. Her hunger was different all of a sudden. It was deeper, more demanding, more physically rooted inside her.

She knew what it meant.

It meant that this time, her prey needed to be of good breeding stock.

Her husband was kind. She cared for him as much as something like her was able, for the moment at least.

He provided her with everything she ever wanted or needed. He came from a wealthy family, eager to please, eager to prove his abilities to the universe, eager to demonstrate his open minded personality to everyone. He was a starry eyed academy graduate with a high ranking Plumber desk job, bountiful pension plan, and an enormous life insurance policy. Whatever happened to him, she would be well off. He was sweet and friendly. Excellent for caring for offspring...just not siring it.

Alessa felt agitated and annoyed. Her husband had invited her to a fancy sit down dinner for something. The details escaped her at the moment as her own biological needs pounded in her ears.

She could dress up and act as though nothing were amiss.

She was good at that. She'd had to be good at it. Alessa had needed to survive.

She'd done it before and she would again.

Alessa just hoped it wouldn't have to include this again...at least not for a few decades.

She smiled and exchanged cordial greetings and small talk with whoever her husband introduced her to. With each hand she shook, she analyzed their owner's energy signatures, looking for potential material.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

The buzzing in her mind increased with her fruitless search. It nagged her. What was she doing here when she should be out looking for.

Something snapped in her ear.

An energy signature caught her attention over near the bar.

She politely excused herself from her husband and whoever he was talking to.

Alessa followed the trail like a predator after elusive prey.

She was good, that's how she'd survived this long when so many of her kind had not. She found what she was looking for.

It was an older man, not older than her, older than her current husband. Older than her current disguise looked, felt, and tasted.

Tentatively, she reached out a long fingered, elegant hand and placed it on his shoulder.

In an instant, she knew everything she needed to know.

He was a Plumber named Max Tennyson, low ranking but highly experienced. Highly intelligent. He had two sons, his wife had recently...very recently left him in order to return to connect with her alien heritage. He was still reeling from it.

Alessa's face lit up.

He was perfect.

Her touch caused him to start and turn around to look at her.

Alessa smiled and blinked her overly large blue eyes.

"I'm sorry, is this seat taken?" she asked sweetly, glowing slightly.

He looked at her and then back at his drink, then back at her.

"No, have a seat," he offered, going so far as to pull the stool next to him out for her.

The two sat there together.

Alessa ordered a drink and felt herself glowing a little more than she meant to.

Damned biology. So much for subtlety.

The man shook his head, as if shaking off an impossible concept. Alessa nodded and tossed her silky golden hair and it tumbled over her shoulders. She put a hand on the man's and talked to him about a lot of nothing to distract him from what she was doing.

He was already half drunk, so a little help from her unique abilities went unnoticed. She broke the ice and said all the right things at all the right times. He gave in, bit by bit.

For a middle aged human, he had surprising resilience to her charms and influence. She had to actually try a lot harder than she had in a long time...but like all men...he succumbed to her unearthly attributes.

Slowly.

It took fifteen minutes to get him off the stool.

Another fifteen to the garden.

Another fifteen before he'd kiss her.

Another ten to get behind the bush.

But as always...she got what she wanted.

She knew everything he wanted, his energy screamed it in her ears. She did everything he liked and she got what she wanted as payment.

When he was finished, she seized his wrists in her hands and drained him until he was unconscious. She dumped the remnants of her drink around him. Someone would find him there later and from the smell, everyone would assume he'd stumbled there in a drunken stupor. With his recent marital troubles, no one would question it. No one would notice the star marks on his wrists and if they did, no one would not what they were.

Alessa smiled to herself.

She still had it.

She made her way to the bathroom to clean herself up. It didn't take long. She fluffed her hair, redid her makeup and sprayed herself with flower scented perfume.

Alessa found the terrible buzzing which had plagued her earlier was quiet. She could actually hear the voices of the people around her. Her husband appeared and hugged her in a comforting, soft way. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

She smiled to herself and placed a hand over her abdomen.

It was strange how her system worked. She could already feel a faint, impossibly tiny spark there.

But it was there.

Alessa didn't worry.

Her traits were dominant. There wouldn't be a question of who the father was on that account. Her husband was so trusting, he'd never even suspect. That was fine with her. For all intents and purposes, he would be her child's father.

The future was looking very bright for her.


End file.
